Top 5 Problems Nissan Versa Sedan 2nd Generation 2012-19

Hey friends, it's Len here from 1A Auto. Today, we have a second generation Nissan Versa inside the studio. I wanna go over some of the top problems. So let's get started.

Now for our first problem, you know, me, I always like to talk about safety. For this one, it's gonna come down to your automatic transmission. Some of the symptoms you might find if you're having an issue with the transmission in your car is that it may be your RPMs are sitting where they're supposed to be, you start to accelerate, you notice that they're going up, but for some reason, the car speed isn't going up. Obviously, that can be an issue if you're trying to pull out into traffic, because when you first initially step on the gas pedal, you kind of like to be able to get out into the traffic and not just wait while your RPMs go up, up, up, transmission kicks into gear, and then maybe you start going a little bit. But in this case, it actually rarely comes down to hesitation at this point forward. You're accelerating, the speed's gradually going up, but nothing in comparison to the actual RPMs of your tachometer

Another possible symptom that you might have with your automatic transmission, and this would be a severe case, would be maybe your vehicle is in drive, you shift it into park, but it kind of still feels like the transmission's engaged. This would stop of course, if you were to turn off the ignition. At that point, the transmission's in the park gear, and you're not necessarily worried about it. Of course, you're gonna use your parking brake because that's something that you're a little worried about. But typically, if this was the issue, it would come down to an internal transmission issue and generally you'd just go ahead and replace that transmission.

Now, the next two problems on this car are gonna be very similar in nature. For the second problem, though, it's gonna come down to the canister vent control valve. Essentially on this, what you might find for an issue would be a check engine light first. That's probably gonna be the only thing that you're probably gonna notice. And what that's gonna come down to is it's gonna have a couple codes in it, probably coming down to like a P0442, P0445, and a P0456. Essentially, it just means you have a large EVAP leak in your system.

The EVAP system is, of course, part of your fuel system. If it's not venting properly, then of course, there's gonna be an issue. The canister control valve is gonna be located on the driver's side, behind the rear bumper, right up under here. You can see the large black canister under there, and the canister control valve is actually gonna be inside underneath this area. So you would of course have to take off the plastic area and then you'll be able to see it. But that's pretty much where the problem's gonna be located. It's pretty typical for these. So that's where I would start looking, but there is also something on the outer portion of the vehicle that I would look at as well. And that would be right up here at the fuel cap.

Go ahead and remove your fuel cap. We're gonna take a look at the gasket right along here. What you wanna do is kind of pull it around and just see if you can see any cracks on it. If you see any dry rot cracks or even large cracks, well then you know that that's an issue. If it's not making a good seal, then of course, you're probably gonna get an EVAP code. If this is the issue, go ahead and replace it, clear the code, and then try again. Also when you're replacing the cap or even just reinstalling it, you wanna be able to give it a nice turn and listen for a click. If you don't hear a click, then that means that it's damaged inside and that's probably not sealing as well.

For the third problem on this car, it comes down to the carbon canister, or you can call it a charcoal canister. That's gonna be the canister that I showed you right underneath the bumper over here. We had a nice look at it with the last problem. It's gonna be pretty much the same type of issue, except in this case, it's not necessarily it's gonna come down to a check engine light with a code saying you have an EVAP leak.

This one, other symptoms that you might find would be when you go to the fueling station and you go to, of course, gas up, you take off your cap here and you're filling and it seems like the pump goes for a second and then cuts out. And you push it again, goes for a second, cuts out. What's happening? You listen a little closer as you do it, and you can hear the fuel go in, glug, glug, glug, and then it sounds like it's, [vocalization], trying to push its way back up for some reason as it's supposed to be going down. That doesn't make any sense.

The reason for that is because there's supposed to be a vent that goes through that charcoal canister. If the charcoal canister isn't doing its job properly, it's not gonna be able to vent up here. And so you're gonna have that gurgling system sound, as you're trying to fuel up your vehicle. Now, of course there is some diagnosing that's gonna be involved for this, but typically what it comes down to is actually replacing that whole canister itself. Typically, there's some stuff inside there that we're not necessarily gonna be able to get into to be able to clean or anything. So if it has an issue internally, well, what are you gonna do aside from replace it?

Now for the fourth problem on this car, we're back inside as you can tell, it's gonna come down the ignition cylinder right here. Some of the symptoms that you might find if you're having an issue with your ignition cylinder might be you get in, you put the key in the ignition, you try to give it a nice turn to start it, but nothing turns on. The dash doesn't turn on. It's completely black and the car definitely doesn't start.

You go ahead and you turn it a couple of times and all of a sudden on the third, fourth, fifth time, who knows. Wow. All right, so it's ready to go. And this time it works. So why would that be a symptom? What would cause that? Well, inside this area where the key's supposed to go to, there's going to be little locks and tumblers inside there. And they, of course, groove into this key right here. So everything needs to match up copacetically as you have this in there. And of course turn it.

If it doesn't because it's worn, well, then you're gonna have an issue where the key isn't recognized by the ignition cylinder. A common reason why this might happen would be, well... I don't know. Why does anybody need these many keys, really? But if you have a lot of keys or anything long and dangly that's hanging from here, it could put a lot of pressure on the internal tumblers inside your ignition switch, which of course is gonna cause this issue. To cure it, well, go ahead and replace the ignition cylinder, the key, more than likely, and of course lighten the load.

Now for the fifth problem on this car, we're gonna talk about an axle click. Typically, when you hear this, it's gonna be when you initially start off from a stop. It's gonna be a pretty common problem. Generally, what this comes down to is gonna be in the front here because you have a front wheel drive car, right? When you go to accelerate, the transmission is gonna activate those axles and it's gonna try to turn this wheel. As that happens, your axle is gonna be going through a wheel bearing that's in between here.

In between the splines of the wheel bearing and the actual axle itself, there might be a little bit of a gap. And in between that gap, there's gonna be air. And as you apply pressure or torque from accelerating or even stopping, the axle can twist a little bit like this inside the bearing. It's not gonna be that much, but a little bit. Anyway, when it makes that little twist, that's gonna be the typical issue here, but why would that happen? There's a couple of things that we wanna think about there. There's gonna be not very much grease inside there. Essentially, you kind of wanna have a little bit of grease in there and that's going to help get rid of that noise.

But the axle shouldn't really be moving around inside that wheel bearing. If it's doing that, well then of course that's a separate issue, in which case there is an aftermarket nut that you can, of course, try to get. If you're gonna get yourself one of those aftermarket nuts, the best thing would be to do, of course, would be to remove the axle from the wheel bearing. You wanna put a little bit of grease in between those splines, put it back in there, and then you're gonna use that new nut and torque it to manufacturer specifications, which is 133 foot-pounds.

It's gonna be a very common problem on most Nissan, starting back in 2007, all the way to today. And of course, if you wanted to see a fix on that, we've done a video on it on a Nissan 370Z. So you can check out the link in the description below. Okay friends, so that's what I've got for you on top problems on a second generation Nissan Versa. I hope you liked the video and I hope you learned a little something along the way. If you did, and you wanna talk about it, or maybe you have one of these cars of your own, and you wanna talk about that one, leave it in the comment section below, because I always love to hear from you.

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